I think Mangowm and maybe even base dwl have a feature like this, where it shows you windows from other workspaces as well in an overview and you can switch between them, but not entirely sure because i personally don't use it much aside from trying it once or twice.
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How many windows do you usually have open in a workspace? Wouldn’t the usual Meta+Direction shortcuts be quick enough for 2-4 windows?
I guess, those don't work for hidden/minimized windows.
Perhaps worth considering a bspwm-like workflow. Rather than minimizing windows, you put them onto another workspace. Just absolves you from dealing with the whole concept of minimized windows...
On a 4k monitor, I sometimes have 6 or 8 visible plus 3 or 4 more on a second and another on a third.
So something like sway-easyfocus for direct jumping via keyboard is quite nice.
Have you tried "niri" wm? Pair it with dankmaterialshell or noctalia-shell for a desktop feeling (cosmic is also and option.)
The keyboard based control you are looking for is almost met, but not quite. That said, you might find this kind of a navigational wm works well for you, based on your description.
The niri website has a decent video demo.
Idk if I follow. I believe the default keybinds in hyprland allow you to switch between windows using super+J/K/L/;, and between workspaces using super+number. Hyprland, like all tiled window managers, are specifically designed to be used exclusively with a keyboard.
Are you asking for something more like alt+tab on windows? Where it shows a little preview of all the windows? I think that's kind of obviated by the concept of a tiled window manager.
This is better than directional arrows or alt tab because you can go directly to any window with one binding to open the utility and a second key to type a window label.
https://github.com/edzdez/sway-easyfocus
The beauty is that it’s the same short process to go to any window no matter if if you 15 visible windows across 3 monitors.
You don’t have to conceptually switch to an output and then to a window or type a string of directional keys like Super+LLLLLJJ
On Hyprland I have all my windows float & stack by default. I use Hyprland since it can be easily customized with dotfiles.
Try sway. It's great and just works.
Does sway have the feature OP is asking for, or are you just suggesting a different tiling window manager, and they would still be left solving the same problem?
+Left, +Right, for windows. +1,2,3,... for screens. Doesn't get easier than that. Love Sway!!
While I love sway, it's not the easiest to work with if you want to do something specific. swaymsg -t get_tree and get good at jq 🤣
Sway. Windows manager, switcher... all that. Fully keyboard controlled. You can change any key combination you don't like. :)
So this is not exactly what you want, but have you seen the rofi -show window feature? There's no preview of the window, but it does display the title even if the window is not on the current workspace.
rofi works in Wayland now? I know there's like a fork that supports Wayland?
The fork was merged into rofi, See the Announcement at the top of the readme for the fork.
You can switcj windows using keyvoard with apps like krunner, rofi, etc. Not exactly what you described/wanted.
I like rofi for this use case, but it uses fuzzy search instead of labels. You might have to type more than one letter, depending on what windows you have open. OTOH if you know any part of the window title you can start typing immediately without having to scan a list for a label first.
Labels work well for jumping to something you can already see, because the label appears where you are already looking, so you see it immediately. I'm guessing the process of finding the label for a window that is not visible would be clunkier - you'd have to find the label in a possibly long window list.
I think you want something similar to my setup... I rarely position and focus windows with the mouse.. only for certain apps that don't resize well into my predefined regions. I believe it's somewhat similar to what Rectangle can do on OS/X, although I only stumbled upon that later.
Here's something I put together for the (not-hyperland) compositor LabWC: https://github.com/labwc/labwc/issues/1001 (and have done similar with X11/OpenBox previously) which might serve as explanation and inspiration. Your post inspired me to rebase and clean up the patch, so thanks.
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